Chapter 10
22:57 pm, Rowan's apartment
He lay on the ground, spluttering and coughing, his blood rushing out of his skull and out of his ears. He spotted his cell phone at the corner of his eye about half a yard away from where his hand was. He struggled to reach out to it to call for help as his hand kept shaking. His vision became blurry; his breaths became raspier and shorter and his heart was slowly but surely failing him.
He stretched out his arm with all the might he still had and managed to reach for his cell phone. With his hands still shaking, he pressed the keys to unlock the device and immediately dialled 911 and patiently waited for a response.
"Hello, you've reached emergency services, what seems to be the problem?" A young woman answered.
Rowan immediately struggled to gets the words out as he was still spluttering. The only words he could utter were "Help me, please." He finished with another spluttered cough.
The young woman on the other line wasn't sure what he said at first. "I'm sorry sir, could you repeat that please."
"I need help." Rowan breathed out
"Okay sir, where are you?" She asked
"I'm at 47, Upton street." He answered.
As he breathed what he didn't know would be his last breath, he realised that what they said about your life flashing before your eyes before you die, was the truth. Flashes of his first childhood memories, his father abandoning the family, his mother's death, living on the deprived ghetto streets of Detroit throughout his teen years, his college years, graduating Princeton, meeting Maya, marrying Maya when she discovered she was pregnant with Olivia, Maya giving birth to Olivia, holding Olivia in his arms for the first time, Olivia's childhood, Maya's supposed death and his troubled relationship and many arguments with Olivia as an adult.
As his very last memory started to fade, he took his final breath and closed his eyes. His life had come to an end.
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23:28 pm, Olivia's apartment.
Olivia found herself in a state, hair all over the place, biting her nails, wandering around her living room, still worried sick about Jake. She tried his phone one more time but there was no answer.
"Damn it!" She yelled worriedly as she threw her phone towards her television. She then heard her elevator moving and immediately turned her head. Hoping it was Jake, she ran towards her door and looked through her peep hole. She waited for the doors to slide open, and by the good Lord must've heard her prayers as it was Jake exited the lift. She breathed a sigh of relief and immediately opened the door as she saw him coming.
"Where the hell have you been?!" She screamed at him as he approached her.
He seemed a little on edge, almost like something was bothering him. "I...I just needed to get out, and clear my head." He told her as he stepped into her apartment, took his jacket off and threw it onto the couch. He ran his fingers through his hair and sat down.
"You better not be lying to me." She told him sternly.
"No, I'm not Olivia. What's the matter with you anyway?!" He yelled flailing his hands, not realising the blood that was dripping from them, but Olivia did.
"Is that blood?" She stormed over to him and grabbed his hand pulling it to her face to observe it closer.
"No it's just...don't worry I'm fine." He said as he snatched his hand away and walked over to the window. "I just got into a fight at the bar." He lied
Olivia rolled her eyes at him. "Fight at the bar huh? Really? How stupid do you think I am?"
"Is that a trick question?" Jake joked.
Olivia shot him a very stern look. If looks could kill, Jake would have been on the floor.
"Where the hell were you?! Olivia yelled raising her voice.
"Liv, I already told you, I was at the bar."
"For two hours? Since when do you spend two hours at a bar? Unless you were getting drunk, which clearly you weren't because you don't reek of beer." She continued
"I ran into an old friend okay?" Jake told her.
"Did you go to see my father?" Olivia asked more softly this time. She didn't necessarily care that he went to see him, she just wanted him to tell her the truth so that if anything ever came up, she could help him.
Jake got up from the couch and strolled over to Olivia. He glared directly into her eyes. "Liv, look at me." He spoke softly. She shifted her eyes from his chest back up to his gaze.
"Okay, I did go to see your father..." She turned around in disgust before he could finish.
"But briefly, okay! I hit him and then it was over, I was gone and I went to the bar to cool off, Liv I swear." He tried to explain, but her closed eyes and disgusted look on her face told him that she wasn't listening to any of it.
"I told you, to leave this alone! Why couldn't you have just listened to me. He will be out for your blood now!" Olivia panicked as she walked around her living room, but her little tirade was interrupted by the sound of her door knocking.
"I'm not finished." She whispered to Jake before walking over to the door to answer. She wiped the remaining tears away and sniffled once more before doing so. She didn't want whoever it was to be in that state. She opened the door to find a middle-aged man and a slightly younger woman. Both were in suits and stood professionally.
"Are you Olivia Pope?" The man said
"Uhm, yeah. Who's asking?" She said shyly
"I'm DI Spencer, this is my partner DI Parkinson.
"Okay..." Olivia said as she wasn't quite sure what this was regarding. There was something about their stance and positions that concerned Olivia a little. "What is this about? Has something happened?" She proceeded to ask.
"Would you mind if we came inside?" DI Parkinson asked her. Olivia continued to grip the side of her door and slowly shook her head. She moved to the side to allow the two detectives to pass through into her living room.
She slowly followed them and stood a few yards away from where they stood by her couch.
"I'm afraid we have some bad news; you may want to sit down Miss Pope." DI Spencer suggested.
"What sort of bad news?" Olivia wondered as a million bad thoughts ran through her head.
"We're very sorry to have to say this, but your father, Elijah Pope was attacked earlier tonight." DI Spencer continued.
Olivia tried not to think the worst scenario. She tried to remain positive. "Well, is he okay, is he in the hospital?" Olivia asked nervously.
The two detectives looked back at each other with worrying uncertainty on their faces, almost like they didn't want to say what they were about to. They then turned towards Olivia, which caught the attention of Jake and he had a feeling he wasn't going to be too happy about what they were about to say next.
"She asked you a question." Jake told them both sternly as he got up from his seat
"We're so sorry, he's died from the incident."
'He's died' Those two words came crashing down on her. It took her a second to process it all. At first she thought it was a joke but the looks on the detective's faces reassured her that this was no joke. A single tear began to fall down her cheek.
"We'll need you to come down to the station to do a formal identification. We understand this will be difficult for you but the sooner it's done the sooner we can work on this case and finding your father's killer." DI Parkinson informed her
"Get out." She whispered through her tears and not even looking them in the face.
"She doesn't mean that she's just in shock" Jake explained to the two detectives.
"No, I mean it. Get out." Olivia whispered again still refusing to look at either of them. She walked past Jake and slowly sat down onto her couch, looking lost and defeated, staring blankly at her wall.
"Look, uhm. Can she do the identification tomorrow? Obviously, you can see, now is not the time?" Jake kindly asked.
"Of course Sir, and what's your name?" DI Spencer asked Jake.
"It's Jake, Jacob Ballard."
Detective Parkinson handed Jake a card giving. "Well, we'll be in touch with Miss Pope and you or her can give us a call tomorrow. Again, we're very sorry for your loss."
"Thank you." Jake said as he took the card.
A/N: Well, well, well. There you have it; Rowan has been murdered. But the question here is, who did it? And I apologise for the long wait for this chapter, I've had a lot going on.
